Is n’t it so typical of the arrogance and sense of entitlement that our politicians in Norneverland cannot even accept criticism ? Sammy Wilson has been accused of calling a fellow Minister “a thug”. He said it and it’s as plain as a pikestaff. That it is not the kind of thing anyone would be sanctioned to say in a parliamentary setting anywhere else. Let’s face it , there are rules of behaviour to be adhered to if we are to call ourselves vaguely, politically civilised. If insult is the best we can do as the epitome of a witty comeback , what good are we?
Then again , this is Norneverland and like most things in this Wonderland Of Incivility , the rules played in other civilised and modern democracies have never really applied. Sammy and his party the DUP see everything as a war of attrition with their republican enemies in Sinn Fein or the wider world. Everything they do is reduced to this very narrow focus.Sammy blames Sinn Fein for making a big issue of his uncivil behaviour.He thinks that at no time do they ever consider that they may have acted in an unparliamentary way. It seems that if a Norneverland politician gets his feet firmly planted under the benevolent , ever -giving table of political control , he feels that the very laws of nature are put into suspension and that he can basically do whatever the hell he likes and the public can go and hang themselves .We are paying for all of this, by the way. Sammy sees something like this criticism as an insult on his very personality .That’s the way he’s always traded words after all.Nobody was annoyed when this bloated sense of self manifested itself in him as the Official Jester in Residence. Well , Jeremy Clarkson thought like that too but he was eventually reminded that some things are still beyond the Pale in civic life. I’m afraid Sammy is rapidly turning into a Bunterish Toad of Toad Hall. Angry eyes a-bulge as he attacked even the decision made by the committee for standards and He rejected the commissioner’s assertion that Mr Wilson’s behaviour brought the assembly into disrepute and then proceeded to attack the very person of the commissioner, his physique , demeanour and even the commissioner’s office.He appears to be in need of anger -management before he brings a heart attack on himself.
This isn’t the first time either. This political arrogance is really what distinguishes our fantasy -land politics from those anywhere else. it would be difficult to believe that politics in Norneverland were the same thing as those practiced in say Westminster. They are very obviously two very different beasts . Some of our politicians have been playing the game for so long that they feel quite invulnerable, even though their behaviour would disallow them from playing the game for any length of time anywhere else.
Nelson McCausland practises and preaches from similar work-notes as Sammy but with a more passive /aggressive tone.. He sees no moral shortcomings in his dealings with something like the Red Sky epic where he was found by all to be in the wrong .Honesty doesn’t appear to be one of the values he respects either .The consensus seems to be that by denying everything and getting really , really angry at all that bad stuff …and all those bad people ,it will simply all go away .It isn’t very important and anyway it gets in the way of the really good story the DUP seem to enjoy telling themselves.
But Harry, they know they can say and do anything they like and there will be no sanctions!
All DUP people have learned from Big Ian to shout and gulder and be as rude and ignorant as they like to anyone and they get away with it.
They think that the truth means nothing and their supposed leader Peter Robinson will back them to the hilt – by doing so his credibility, such as it is, diminishes every time he just goes along with their misbehaviour.
DUP and respect are total strangers!
Yep Sammy was on television yesterday …describing the commissioner who found against him as “a wee wimp”. That’s right …Sammy thinks everybody else has got it wrong ..a sort of megalomaniacal apoplexy colours every thing he sees.He judges the man not by his intellect or intelligence, but by his girth .Sammy obviously has a hankering for bouncing his belly or having a pissing contest with anyone who disagrees with his huge ego.
The commissioner’s finding was largely supported by the cross-party Standards and Privileges Committee, which is chaired by Mr Wilson’s DUP colleague Jimmy Spratt, but the committee rejected Mr Bain’s finding that Mr Wilson’s behaviour brought the Assembly into disrepute. That’s another matter for public opinion too.
A better man than Sammy would have made his apologies for acting like a boorish asshole but then again , we’re all beginning to believe that this man is fast developing a Napoleon complex anyway and is possibly beyond repair..
I’m puzzled by your inclusion of that word ‘possibly’, pk….
That’s just giving Sammy the benefit of the doubt , Jude …Gawd help us ……!!!!
I know it’s wrong to generalize , but manners , civility , tolerance and respect seem strangely absent from the make-up of that section of society. Whether its flinging insults ,denigrating ones language , religion or national flag , it appears acceptable….. almost compulsory ……could its roots be in their believed superiority to the ” lowly” Irish
There might be a bit of that old bullshit going on ,Seamus.You’d never know. In the past a sense of “entitlement” meant that even rich fools in Norneverland also assumed that they were intellectually superior to those in a poorer station.A bit of money can do that to some. In Sammy’s case it seems to be a mixture of that political entitlement that he’s assumed by constantly being voted into a situation where there are no visible sanctions against bad behaviour….and of course , it might be a simple personality disorder like Tourette’s syndrome or a Pavlovian attack response….like some wee rattlebag of a barking terrier dog who grandstands behind a garden fence, thinking himself some kind of wolf,,,,,
Mr Wilson’s lack of etiquette goes a long way to explain the ongoing need for riot police and water cannons as the ‘normal’ face of policing in our thoroughfares.